Helium shortage may mean higher MRI costs, costlier balloons

Helium supplies tighten, leading to higher prices

Steve Atkins, senior vice president at nexAir, says the company this year will receive only 80 percent of the amount of helium that it got in 2011. So far, the company has been able to fill its orders for the gas, but is prioritizing its distribution, with customers with MRIs topping the list.

Space exploration, medical research and party balloons may not seem like they have much in common.

But they all need one common element, helium.

Less of the light stuff, however, is available now than it was a year ago. Worldwide helium stocks have tightened, industry sources say, and consumers can expect to pay more for party balloons, MRI scans and welding materials.

Memphis-based gas technology company nexAir will receive only 80 percent of the total amount of helium it got last year. So far, said the company's senior vice president, Steve Atkins, nexAir has been able to fulfill orders. But he said helium prices they charge will increase as low supplies have pushed up their costs to get it.

"We've had a number of cost increases in the last several months,"Atkins said. "Everything we read and see leads us to expect to see more cost increases in the future."

Most blame tight stocks on both scheduled and unplanned maintenance disruptions at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Pipeline & Storage System, the largest helium store in the world. Outages, too, have hit stores in Algeria and Qatar, increasing the demand for helium on the BLM Pipeline.

Nine plants (five in Kansas and four in Texas) extracted helium from the ground in 2011, but some distributors that sell helium to the federal government must buy it from the government's pipeline. U.S. helium consumption is on the decline as 56 million cubic meters were used in 2011, which is down from the 74 million cubic meters consumed in 2007.

Most of the 2011 consumption was used for cryogenic applications, such as cooling MRI magnets. About 13 percent of that total consumption was for balloons and other such uses.

Helium is the second-most abundant element in the universe, but is a finite resource on Earth, like fossil fuels. Helium is typically found close to natural gas deposits, though special equipment is needed to capture the gas before it is released into the atmosphere.

There is more helium yet to be discovered, experts say, and this year's shortage is more like the shortage in 2006-2007 in that the cause is at the distribution point, not in overall global abundance.

But until helium flows more readily from private and government sources, nexAir's Atkins said his company will have to prioritize its distribution to customers.

Customers with MRIs are at the top of the list, Atkins said, followed by laboratory and medical users, industrial users and then balloon customers.

"We're not trying to scare anybody or trying to be emotional," Atkins said. "We just want people to know there's a shortage and why there's a shortage."